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Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Blitz : Twisted

Hi
everyone! Thanks so much for stopping in to let me talk a little bit
about TWISTED. I’m Taryn Elliott and I co-write the Lost in
Oblivion series with Cari Quinn. We started this crazy idea thanks to
our mutual obsession with music. We both came up with individual
ideas for musicians and decided…hmmm. Well, that’s stupid. We
work well together already as critique partners. Oh, and we’re best
friends.

Why
aren’t we doing a project together again?

Now
the danger, of course, is jumping into bed with your best friend. In
our case…trust and being co-chairs of our mutual admiration society
keeps us pretty happy. That and we have the truly eerie ability to
read each other’s mind. I kid you not—it could be a party trick
at this point. It’s a little crazy.There’s a lot of different
ways to do the co-authoring thing. Our process?We both wanted to
make music the actual focus of the series.

No,
really. Music.

I
know…this is a little shocking, but there are many rock star
romances out there that barely touch on the actual music making. AND
we wanted it to be a bit grittier than what we’ve seen out there in
our e-readers.With that in mind we make a loose outline of
where we want to go with the series. And seriously, I do mean loose.
Holy change of heading, Batman! Boy do we throw monkey wrenches in
our stories! But instead of arguing about huge changes, or plots that
run off the rails…we simply reassess and find that the story is
actually better for it in the long run.

The
first book, SEDUCED, we wrote together. That book was a beast of a
different color in all ways. She was the character of Nick Crandall
and I was Simon Kagan. We alternated chapters and stayed strictly in
our own character’s point of view. That worked pretty well, but the
alternating chapters kind of stilted our writing a little bit. Oh and
the introduction novel became a whole different kind of love story.
It wasn’t two characters falling in love—it was a band forming,
or…for all intents and purposes…falling in love.

After
we were finished with that book we knew we needed to focus on the
relationships we’d established in SEDUCED. So we decided to take on
the full novels and alternate writing that way.

I
wrote ROCKED – Harper Pruitt and Deacon McCoy’s story this past
April.

Cari
wrote TWISTED – Jazz Edwards & Grayson Duffy’s story which
comes out December 2nd.

I
will take over again and write DESTROYED this upcoming spring –
Simon Kagan & Margo Reece’s story.

Then
Cari will bookend the series with SHATTERED next winter –Nick
Crandall & Lila Shawcross’s love story.

In
between, we also write novellas because we juuuuust can’t let go of
our characters. At this point, you’d think we were COMPLETLY sick
of our characters. 400 pages? Nahhh. I neeeeeeed more!

Then…don’t
get us started on the spinoffs. This whole musical world opened up so
many different stories for us. If you saw our storyboards and
One Note files you’d weep. It’s a sickness. Oone that I NEVER
want a cure for. Cari and I will never be one of those writers that
says, “I’m out of ideas.”Seriously…TOO many ideas are
rambling around in our heads! And man…we wouldn’t have it any
other way!

Thanks
so much for having us! And we hope you enjoy our next installment of
the Lost in Oblivion series, TWISTED!

Twisted by Cari Quinn and Taryn Elliott

He’s always saved her. Now she’s going to return the favor…Gray Duffy never thought he’d end up as the co-lead guitarist of Oblivion, one of the hottest rock bands in the country. Even better? He’s sharing the experience with his best friend, Jazz. Since the day she’d showed up as his family’s new foster kid, Gray has protected her. Loved her. And not just platonically either. After all these years of wanting her in his bed, he still doesn’t know what it would be like to have her mouth on his.

Except for that one time. The time he’d shared her with Nick. The best worst night of his life.

Now they’re living their dream. They’re making music together and spending every waking moment trapped in tight quarters. With success at their fingertips, the time is right for him to finally make his move toward the woman he needs.

He just never figured he would lose control. Or that she would find out.

They’ve loved each other through everything. But what if this time love just isn’t enough?

Hope you enjoy this deleted scene that didn’t make it into the final manuscript of TWISTED! J

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gray reclined in his seat, kicking out his legs as far as he could in the SUV’s back seat. It was one of those monster, tricked out ones like he still drove occasionally for Elite Transport, though that was mostly out of a sense of loyalty than anything else. It wasn’t like he needed the money anymore.
Or the access to blow.
As one of the co-lead guitarists of Oblivion, one of the biggest up-and-coming bands around—according to their press kit—he could get anything he wanted pretty much as soon as the thought occurred. Drugs, expensive alcohol, cheap girls. Those in particular were everywhere. A snap of a finger and he could have two in his lap.
Well, not right now. He was crammed in with his band, their manager and their driver in an Escalade zooming up Sepulveda Boulevard. There wasn’t any room in here for women.
He cast a quick glance to his right to their drummer. She sat with her knees drawn up to her chest as she bobbed her head to the music coming through her headphones. Aqua and sapphire blue striped hair waved down her back in time with her movements and sparkling bangle bracelets caught the passing sunlight every time she tapped her fingers against her thigh.
That particular woman didn’t count.
Even when she counted for too much.
He dragged his jacket over his face and tried to block out the voices around him. Too many voices. Before the past year, it had been a long time since he’d been in the middle of chaos, and now it was his daily reality.
Oblivion was on its way to another media thing at some big ass radio station in LA. That meant a couple of hours of standing around, waiting for their turn. Questions, photos, lots of acting fake. Maybe if he was lucky he’d get to strum his guitar on command and talk about the new single that was about to drop. Anything was better than muttering about his “songwriting process” and “if it was true what they said about guitarists in rock bands.” That usually meant some lewd joke about how fast he could get a woman off, which he’d answer with a cocky laugh while pretending he wasn’t mentally stabbing the deejay.
He loved music. It had saved him, was still saving him every goddamn day. What he didn’t love? The press. Talking too much. Anything that wasn’t, yanno, actually playing his freaking songs.
Smothering a yawn from under his jacket, he turned his cheek and tried to get a few minutes sleep. He’d been blessed with the ability to drop off anywhere anytime and that skill had come in very handy during their weeks on the road. When he wanted to check out, nothing stopped him.
Not even the song he’d written for Jazz playing on the radio for the first time.
He went still, barely breathing as the first frenetic notes of “Twisted” came out of the speakers. Everyone was talking so loudly that they didn’t hear it at first. Simon yelled something about needing a hamburger, and Deak tried to calm him down with promises to stop at a fast food place soon. Nick interjected a comment about Simon loving meat, especially the wet, pink kind. Jazz, happily oblivious, sung along to Alanis Morisette on her headphones.
And layered beneath it all played the words Gray had written the night he’d watched Jazz fuck another guy.
Everything I do, it’s for you. You don’t see it. Don’t feel it. I’m just the picture on the wall. The man you call. Maybe it’s your fault. Maybe it’s mine.
We got it twisted.
So twisted.
The shouts turned to silence, followed by loud whoops of laughter and cheers.
Hidden under his jacket, Gray groaned. He’d known this day would come—the day when the whole world got to hear him pour his heart out to the woman he’d loved since he was sixteen.
He just hadn’t been ready.
Would never be ready.

USA TODAY bestselling author Cari Quinn wrote her first story--a bible parable--in 2nd grade, much to the delight of the nuns at her Catholic school. Once she saw the warm reception that first tale garnered, she was hooked. She attempted her first romance in junior high, long before she'd ever read one. Writing what she knew always took a backseat to what she wanted to know, and that still holds true today.

Though she also fires up her computer as a graphic designer, proofreader and editor, she can't resist the lure of disappearing into a world of her own creation. Now she gets to pen sexy romances for a living and routinely counts her lucky stars.

The only thing she loves more than writing is hearing from readers! Please contact her through one of the ways below.